SLIDES

The Letter to the Galatians

Galatians 1:11-24

Part 6

Introduction

Over the last 2000 years there have been many people, Jews and Gentiles, men and women, whose lives have been drastically changed when they trusted in Christ s their Savior. You could begin with the 11 Apostles and find many more on the pages of the New Testament in Isarel and in the known world at that time. There are well over one hundred people listed in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. I could list many from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. There are    people here today in this church and in this very room whose lives were dramatically changed when they trusted in Christ.

Even though there have been millions of people whose lives were changed when they trusted in Christ as their Savior, there is probably no one whose life was dramatically changed as that of the Apostle Paul. It was changed 180 degrees. As we shall see, he was an Orthodox Pharisee who was a member of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the supreme council in charge of Jewish affairs in Israel during New Testament times. The Sanhedrin was made up of Levitical Priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees met to decide on legal matters that had religious, political, and social ramifications. He was zealous for Judaism and persecuted Jewish believers in Jesus who believed to the early church.  He was a driven man. Then, approximately AD 35 while was traveling to Damascus to take Jewish believers in Damascus back to Jerusalem bound by chains, he met Jesus face to face. This face-to-face meeting with Jesus would change his life forever as displayed in the pages of the New Testament.   

Today Paul, in his own words, is going tell us about this transition from the Satan’s kingdom of darkness to the Jesus Kingdom of Light. The first thing Paul will tell us in Galatians 1:11-12 is that the Gospel he preached from day one to the day he died came directly from the Lord.

11    For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

12    For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

11-12 -Not only was Paul called by God to be an Apostle, as we saw in verse 1, but He also received the Gospel from the LORD. He received it by revelation from God. The term revelation means to reveal or to uncover. He did not receive the Gospel from the other Apostles, an elder board, a missions committee, or any man or group of men. Only God called him to be an Apostle and only God gave Him the Gospel which he preached and proclaimed.  He wanted the people in the churches in Galatia, believers and unbeliever, Jews and Gentiles, to understand that his call to be an Apostle and his knowledge of what the Gospel was came directly from God not from man. He was contrasting himself to the Judaizers who were not Apostles called by God and did not receive the Gospel from God. Their message was man’s message on how to be saved and sanctified, not God’s. The Gospel Paul received from God included the death of Jesus, the burial of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:1-8).  Nothing can be added or subtracted from the Gospel message He proclaimed to the Galatians when he planted the five churches and in the first letter he wrote to them.

  13   For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it;

13- Paul now wants to share with the churches in Galatia part of

his history as a Pharisee in Judaism to contrast his life before he was called by God to be a believer in Jesus and an Apostle.  The contrast is nothing but miraculous and amazing.

Maybe the contrast in our lives is not as astonishing as the contrast in Paul’s life, but the salvation of each person here is absolutely miraculous and as many years as most of us have been saved, there should be noticeable change. At the end of Paul’s life, we could say that on a scale of one to ten, he would rate a ten in the area of sanctification or growing in Christ. Today I want you to rate yourself with two numbers. First, on a scale from one to ten on where do you think you should be on the sanctification scale of the spiritual growth in Christ after all of the biblical light you have received from biblical teaching and preaching and personal Bible study. Now where on a scale of 1-10 where do you think you are? Are the two numbers the same? For most of us probably not. Therefore, most, if not all of us, have spiritual growing to do.  

In Paul’s former life as a Pharisee BC, before Christ, he was a disciple of Gamaliel.   Gamaliel was a first-century AD who was a  part of the school of Hillel and a member of the Sanhedrin. During Paul’s life BC, he persecuted Jewish believers in Jesus. He could have cared less about Gentiles becoming believers in Jesus. He was only concerned with Jewish believers in Jesus. We get some insight into his persecution of messianic believers in Jesus in Acts 22:3-5 to an unnamed Roman army commander.  This is the incident when Paul told them he was a Roman citizen, they took the chains off him and set him free. This is in Acts 22:3-5.

3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today.

4 “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons,

5 as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished.

In Acts 26:9-12 in Paul’s Defense before King Agrippa II, he added a few details that he did not give to the Roman commander. King Agrippa II was the governor over Judea when Paul was imprisoned in Jerusalem.

 9 “So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

10 “And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them.

11“And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.

12 “While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,

Galatians 1:14

14 and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my

contemporaries among my countrymen, being more

extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.

14 – Saul continued to move up the ladder in Judaism in a past pace.  There were probably several reasons for this. One reason for his fast rise in Judaism may have been he had been a disciple of Gamaliel who was highly respected. A second reason may have been his zeal to ravage and devastate the church by persecuting Jewish believers in Jesus. It took a lot of nerve and intestinal fortitude to try to destroy the lives of other Jewish people. Paul was climbing the ladder in Judaism over those who were about his own age and even other Jews who may have been older and more experienced. He was a trailblazer of sorts.

Another reason he was probably moving up in the world of Judaism and past those his own age and other Jews was because he was extremely more zealous than they were. Please note what he was zealous for – his ancestral traditions. He was not only talking about the Law of Moses, but he was also talking about the traditions of the rabbis or what we would today Rabbinical Judaism. Rabbinical Judaism was based in those days on the Oral Law which is called the Mishna. The Mishna contains the laws that God supposedly gave Moses on Mt Sinah, but it was not written down but was transmitted orally for hundreds of years. It began to be written down about 200 years before Jesus was born. The Oral Law what Jesus was referring to in Mark 7:5-9.

5   The Pharisees and the scribes *asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?”

    6   And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

          ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS,

      BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.

  7  ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME,        

      TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’

  8  “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

  9  He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.

The traditions of men, then and today, trump the Law of Moses. Several centuries after Jesus’ death, the Mishna or the Oral Law was completely written down and commentary began to be added to it. The commentary on the Mishna is called the Gamora. The Mishna combined with the Gamora is called the Talmud. The Talmud is like today’s study Bible that has Scripture plus commentary. Galatians 1:15-16a.

15 But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased

16a to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him

among the Gentiles,

15-16a - God did not set apart Saul to be an Apostle to the Gentiles

on the Road to Damascus but in his mother’s womb. This should

remind us of Jeremiah being called as a prophet as seen in

Jeremiah 1:4-5.

     4    Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,

     5    “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

         And before you were born I consecrated you;

        I have appointed you a prophet to the      

         nations.”

Even though God set Saul apart from his mother’s womb, Jesus did

not reveal this to him until He appeared to him on the Road to

Damascus. Note that God called Saul by virtue of His grace, His

unmerited favor. He did not call him because he was special or

better than anyone else. God called him by His grace i.e. something

he did not earn or deserve. The same thing can be said about all of

us who are called by His name. His call was by His grace – not

something he earned or deserved. Galatians 1:15-16a.

           Paul is more specific about his call. God revealed Jesus to him. The

           word reveal means to uncover or expose something. It comes from the same Greek word from where we also get the word revelation. God opened up Saul’s spiritual eyes so that he could finally see that Jesus is the Messiah and Savior of the world. He did not reveal Jesus to him to just save him revealed Jesus to save him but also, for another purpose. The Lord told Ananias. what the other purpose was in Acts 9:15-16.

       15  But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;

       16  for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

Just as Jeremiah and Paul were called for a specific purpose for their lives, so are every believer in Jesus. In Ephesians 2:8-9 we find that all believers in Jesus also have a purpose beyond receiving forgiveness of sin and eternal life. We find that each believer has a purpose beyond salvation as seen in Ephesians 2:10.

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

We are God’s “workmanship. The Greek word for workmanship is poiema.  Poiema is where we get the English word poem.” In other words, we are His masterpiece. But unlike statues or paintings that simply adorn the halls of museums, we’re designed for action. God has good works for us to do that He “prepared beforehand”—before we were even born. His plan for our lives does not end when we believe the message of the gospel and receive eternal salvation by grace through faith apart from works. Rather, this experience simply marks the beginning of our Christian life as new creatures “in Christ Jesus” Usually our good works stem from the spiritual gift(s) and the natural abilities God gives us by and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

16b I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood,

17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were

apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned

once more to Damascus.

16b-17 - After Saul received his marching orders, he did not try to go

the other Apostles or anyone else for advice or direction. There is no

indication in then Text if the Lord led him away from going to the

other Apostles or anyone else for advice or direction.

Instead of going the other Apostles for advice and guidance, Paul went to the Arabian desert for three years. Paul’s brief account of the three years following his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus brings up some unanswered questions. Why did he travel east into the region of Arabia? What did he do there? Was he alone or with others?

Most think that while Saul was in the Arabian desert that He communed with God during that time. During the three years God revealed to Saul the mysteries of the New Testament not known in the Old Testament such the church, the body of the Messiah, Jews and Gentiles as equal partners in that body, the believer’s spiritual union “in Christ,” etc. After his three years in the Arabian Desert, he returned to Damascus probably to spread the Gospel. Galatians 1:18-20

18 Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become

acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. 19

But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the

Lord’s brother. 20 (Now in what I am writing to you, I assure

you before God that I am not lying.)

After leaving Damascus, Paul returned to Jerusalem after three plus

years to visit Peter so he could get to know him. Remember Peter

was the leader of the Apostles. Who better to get acquainted with

than Peter. I find it interesting that Peter was the leader of the

Apostles, but Peter ended up being an Apostle to the Jews

and Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles. Why did Paul write more

books than Peter? Peter wrote two, 1 & 2 Peter, and Paul wrote 13.

Maybe the reason Paul wrote more is because that the churches

Paul planted were made up of mostly Gentiles. Peter, who was an

apostle to the Jews. wrote his two books to Jews. While in

Jerusalem, Paul also visited with James, the Lord’s brother.

Galatians 1:21-24

  21   Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

  22   I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ;

  23   but only, they kept hearing, “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.”

  24   And they were glorifying God because of me.

Vs. 22 –24 -The churches in Judea had heard of what Paul did before he met Jesus on the Road to Damascus and how he persecuted Jewish believers in Jesus.  But they had also heard how Jesus changed his life and he was not preaching the gospel that he once despised.  Even though they had heard about his completion in Christ, they had never met him since he was doing evangelism outside of Isarel.  Because of his changed life in Jesus, they were now praising the Lord for him.

Like Paul, each of us will be evaluated at the Judgement Seat of Christ for what we have accomplished during our time on earth with the spiritual and natural gifts we have been given by the Lord and the opportunities we have had to share the gospel and minister to people. How do you think that will work out for you? Something to think about and to reevaluate, if need be.